In this Bus Driver Simulator Review, we take a look at the 2019 driving sim release by KishMish Games. We pay particular attention to the PC version on Steam, available for $24.99. We also see how it compares to other Bus Simulator games we’ve played.

This year, we’ve seen a fair share of simulator games. We’re preparing a Top 10 list of our favourite sim games from all the ones we’ve reviewed. For now, we wanted to see how the KishMish Games title lives up to the hype in 2020.

Will you enjoy driving around the streets on a bus and what are the NPCs like? How do you control the vehicle, and is it easy to play? We answer these questions and so much more in our Bus Driver Simulator Review below.

Platform reviewed:	PC
Release date:	4 December 2019
Price:	$24.99
Genre:	Driving Simulator
Players:	1
File size	4 GB
Developer:	KishMish Games
Publisher:	KishMish Games

Contents

1 Story
2 Gameplay
3 Graphics
4 Sound
5 Bus Driver Simulator Review: Final Verdict
6 Other Reviews and Guides
- - - 6.0.0.1 Bus Driver Simulator Review - Exciting New 2020 Impression

Story

For our Bus Driver Simulator Review, we decided to take a trip through the realistic streets in the game. You’re a bus driver, and your mission is to pick up passengers and drop them off at selected points. There are special missions or you can build your own career in free roam.

The developer used photos of Russian Serpukhov and German Cologne to create real sceneries. You can choose which routes you want to drive, and you can customise the game to your driving style. Making money, buying new vehicles and building your empire is the name of the game.

Sadly, we didn’t get to experience any of these elements. Read further in our Bus Driver Simulator Review to find out why.

Gameplay

It’s not often that we give a bad rating for a game. However, when the game doesn’t even allow us to play properly, then there’s a problem.

That’s what we discovered for our Bus Driver Simulator Review. After the short tutorial, we had the chance to drive around ourselves. It was at this point that everything went wrong.

We pressed the throttle to drive. Instead of going forwards, we went into reverse. It was a rather strange experience since we had indicated that we want to drive with an automatic shift. So, we tried to see how we could go forward.

No matter how hard we tried, studied the controls and settings, button bashed or restarted the game, the bus refused to go forward. We gave the game a few day’s breathing space and tried again. All it knows how to do is reverse. At this point, we gave up trying to play it for our Bus Driver Simulator Review.

You may be asking, but why don’t we contact the developers for a solution or look online for one. We could. The moral of our story is, if we have to go that far to work out how to play a game, just for a simple driving mechanic, then there’s no point in playing it.

Graphics

In terms of graphics for our Bus Driver Simulator Review, it isn’t too bad. The reason we say that is because we played Bus Simulator on the PS4 first. Compared to that game, there are too many blocky edges and poorly designed terrain and characters to give a high rating here.

Some of the visual effects do look good, though. The design team seem to have the lighting right, and the draw distance isn’t too bad. It’s just that we’ve seen better with a more polished design.

Sound

The sound is another factor that we felt was adequate for our Bus Driver Simulator Review. The thrumming of the bus engine was good, as well as some of the NPC chatter. Sadly, we couldn’t get into the game far enough to know what the city sounds like.

Bus Driver Simulator Review: Final Verdict

For our Bus Driver Simulator Review, we’re giving average ratings for all elements except gameplay. It’s a decent enough game if you can get past the tutorial. It just doesn’t have enough going for it for us to recommend it.

Judging by the Steam user reviews, we aren’t the only ones that feel this way (including the reverse hiccup). So, we’ll state that Bus Driver Simulator isn’t worth buying at $24.99 and we feel you’re better off waiting for the upcoming Bus Simulator 2021 by Astragon Entertainment, or buying the current Bus Simulator.